In this episode I discuss the lack of progress in the Middle East peace process and the reasons for which, if what Gregory Bateson called schismogenesis is not addressed, there is very few hope that the conflict might be resolved.

This episode discusses one aspect of contemporary war which has been often been overlooked by both academics and journalists: the case of the pharmaceutical industry and its expansion during the Afghan and Iraq wars.

How much blood has been spilled in Afghanistan? It is very difficult to say; official estimates speak of an improbable 12,000 to a more probable, but still conservative, 32,000 casualties. Of these deaths, the “insurgents” of various affiliations (so not only the Taliban) would have been responsible, according to very conservative statistics, for almost a sixth. Certainly, as repugnant as they may be, the suicide bombers and road-side bombs as well as the Taliban’s punitive and revenge killings cannot be compared to the 30000lb air-bombs dropped by NATO. Continue reading →

Recently we have witnessed another carnage, this time in Mumbai, perpetrated by people who are ready to kill for their ideological, political and religious beliefs. Among those murdered, coming from all walks of life and are of different ethnic, national and religious origin, there are also two Jewish parents who leave 2-year-old Moshe orphaned. He was lucky enough to remain alive. This absurd gratuitous violence against unarmed and defenseless people is not the first occurrence and will not be the last. Continue reading →

Indonesia today is celebrating the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States because of his youthful links with the country. Some other people, in Australia, are waiting to celebrate the execution of the infamous Bali bombers, responsible for the carnage in Bali while others, as the Majority of British relatives of the victims, are still trying to stop the execution and commute it to a life-sentence. I do not want to discuss here whether the death penalty is a just punishment, or efficient, or if, as it actually seems to me, shooting them (instead of using lethal injection) is equivalent to an act of torture. Certainly, to be killed, mutilated, or left to die slowly with metal shrapnel in your body by a terrorist bomb is no less a torture – but eye-for-eye justice is often debatable

Sarah Maple defines herself as an artist To use my definition of identity she feels to be an artist. Some would recognize her as such and invite her to expose her works Other, as often is the case for contemporary at, would consider her ‘art’ as another pice of junk. Sarah Maple was born in 1985 and grew up in Sussex. The daughter of a mixed religious and cultural couple, she was brought up as Muslim by her mother.Let me say that I do not find Sarah Maple’s work interesting or original at all. For somebody born in Florence, tolerance for contemporary art tends to end with Kandinsky.

I tend to find Miss Maple’s artistic expression too childish and simplistic, when not overtly vulgar or distasteful without being even too original. Her work it seems often more the production of a school girl with too many hormones in her blood. Indeed it does not reach the artistic power of an unique scandalous artist affected by genitalphilia such as Francis Bacon. I have also the impression that as other artists and writers today, she is trying to find an easy route to fast success by playing with controversy surrounding Islam and Muslims. Continue reading →